Develop Your Passion

The Mission Newsletter, 7/6/18

“If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.” — Wanda Skyes

Create More Opportunities For Yourself

Episode 50 of The Mission Daily

Whether you’re looking for diamonds, gold or just more opportunities, sometimes what you’re seeking is closer than you think. Chad and Stephanie are here to help you take those extra steps just a little bit further to get you where you need to go.

The Mission Daily is a podcast dedicated to accelerated learning and helping you become healthier, wealthier, and wiser. It is designed to help you learn — as fast as you possibly can.

Secrets To Make Technology Serve You

“Everywhere around us in modern American culture are bright and shiny machines. All of these different types of devices and technology are becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous every single day. So why are so many people dissatisfied, depressed, or distracted? The cold truth is that many of them are becoming servants of these devices, social networks, and technologies they purchase. They have failed to adopt the mindset to ensure that the technology they use serves them. In our modern era, if we want to be mission-driven, we must seek to master technology. We thrive when we use technology as our servant and suffer when it becomes our master.” -Chad Grills

News That Matters

Health

Probiotics may have another benefit — strengthening your bones.

Researchers studied older women, between the ages of 75 and 80, and found that those who took a probiotic supplement had a much higher bone density reading that the women who did not. A year after first measuring bone density in the shin bone, the women who took the supplement saw a reduction nearly half of that among those who took no supplement. The reason for this remains unclear, as this was the first study of probiotics and their effect on bone density done in humans. The doctors in charge of the study believe that the supplement could be affecting estrogen naturally in a woman’s body and thus resulting in the stronger bones.

Wisdom

In an upcoming paper, researchers are suggesting that everyone stop trying to find their passion.

Wait, what?

Yep, Stanford psychologists Carol Dweck and Gregory Walton studied people who merely hoped to “find their passion,” and discovered that those people often wound up failing to develop interests.

“Mantras like ‘find your passion’ carry hidden implications, the researchers say. They imply that once an interest resonates, pursuing it will be easy. But, the research found that when people encounter inevitable challenges, that mindset makes it more likely people will surrender their newfound interest.”

Rather than go into something with a fixed mindset, which can stunt personal growth and hinder the advancement of interests, the researchers suggest you develop your passion rather than trying to just “find” it. Investing in yourself and something that excites you will lead to more happiness than being complacent and waiting around for change.

Tech Trends

Somebody get an owl to Dumbledore — we’ve got reports of an invisibility cloak. Seriously!

“A new study offers the first demonstration of invisibility cloaking based on the manipulation of the frequency (color) of light waves as they pass through an object, a fundamentally new approach that overcomes critical shortcomings of existing cloaking technologies.”

The new device uses broadband illumination to conceal objects much better than previous invisibility cloaking devices, which used only single color waves. The single-color wave was a problem because sunlight (and most other light) illuminates with a broad spectrum of light colors, so the devices were limited.

Currently, researchers want to use the technology to secure data traveling over fiber optic lines. However, in the future, the idea of making 3D objects invisible is not out of the question.

Marketing Trends

In order to market to a broad audience, GE has had to find a way to humanize the technology in their portfolio, because as CMO Linda Boff says, people want to talk to people, not faceless companies.

One of the ways she hopes to get GE more intimately involved with its customers is through audio marketing and content as well as AR. However, Boff says the old standbys are nothing to sneeze at.

“Sometimes what’s old is new again. So we’ve had great success with things like targeted newsletters that are simply serving the right message to the right audience. And feels kind of crazy to be sitting here in this wonderful high tech office talking to you about newsletters, and yet sometimes it’s those tools used the right way that can actually reach the right folks.”

Boff also discussed the move to programmatic marketing, which GE has avoided for a long time. She says, though, that by using behavioral tactics, she believes GE will be able to do programmatic marketing in a better way.

Education Trends

Google has started a collaboration with colleges in seven states to offer an IT Support Professional Certificate. This will help support 14 companies which say they have had trouble filling various roles, most of which do not require a college degree.

The course is part of the Grow With Google initiative, which Google began to help individuals find their way in the tech world. And as more and more companies become frustrated with college graduates who are not properly trained in basic areas of IT, this new approach to training willing students could be the answer to many problems.

Goonies was produced by Steven Spielberg and released by Warner Bros on June 7, 1985. Thirty-three years later, it’s a cult classic. Last year, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

It’s not summer until you join the Goonies on their adventure! Watch the trailer here.

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